Stereo Typical

lt’s been a fantastic year for Rizzle Kicks, aka fresh-faced Brighton duo Jordan Stephens (19 years old) and Haney Alexander-Sule (20 next month), ex-students ofthe BRIT School. Unknown to the public as recently as May 2011, the pair’s debut single Prophet (Better Watch tt) caused enough of a stir online for its follow-up, Down With the Trumpets, to climb into the U K top 10 in June, two months later they went all the way to number one, as guests on Olly Murs’ Heart Skips a Beat. Stereo Typical therefore carries the weight of no little expectation on its shoulders – but it does so with an appealing spring in its step, as Well as a cautious swagger, and with plenty of good-natured humour that reaches beyond their predominantly young audience.

At 14 tracks Stereo Typical is a couple of filler cuts too full of itself- Demolition Man could certainly have been lopped from the final product without affecting its impressions, and the Fatboy Slim-produced Mama Do the Hump doesn’t really with the more relaxed feel of what surrounds it. . As the pair’s Worldview expands, they’|| introduce more impressive imagery into their rhymes – Which, it must be said, are tight enough right now.

itself- Demolition Man could certainly have been lopped from
the final product without affecting its impressions, and the
Fatboy Slim-produced Mama Do the Hump doesn’t really with
the more relaxed feel ofwhat surrounds it.

Rizzle Kicks’ debut, by bypassing the commonplace put-downs
of peers and proffering a very British take on pop-liavoured rap,
is an accomplished and infectious introduction to some rightly
rising talents. –Mike Diver